Homophobia accusations over rejected sauna bid
Blackpool City Council has been accused of prejudice after rejecting an application to open a gay sauna.
The chair of the development control committee said it would have a detrimental effect on the area, create extra traffic and be “out of character with the area,” according to Blackpool Today.
Leader of the council, Councillor Peter Callow, said: “When you have got a sauna that is male only and planning to stay open until midnight it does not leave much to the imagination.”
There are already two gay saunas in the city, which close at 9pm and 10pm.
A business partner in the new venue said the council was being homophobic and said their proposal had been misrepresented as a gay brothel.
“We plan to appeal because the grounds they rejected it on are nonsense,” said Jonathan Johnson.
